Can fly with rudder and elevator only?

[thealex]

Hi all,

Ia m a beginner, I bought a super cub recently, and when i bought home the Super Cub, i noticed that it only have rudder and elevator ?! I am wondering what is the diff. between airplane with airleon and without airlon? can it manuovour normally?

thanks...

[Sunstorm]

Rudder / Elevator planes means the plane cannot roll...

Aileron / Elevator planes means the plane cannot yaw. (turn nose left/right).

[tampines flyer]

well actually i'm a very newbie in rc plane .well for a newbie like me rudder is better or aileron.well hope tat explain the newbie like me hehe

[leonlio]

rudder/elevator

Rudder/elevator planes are usually slow flyers suitable for beginners 'coz the reduction of one channel, the aileron, should also reduce the workload on the pilot.

If you examine closer you should notice that the rudder/elevator plane most likely will have a high wing with a dihedral profile. This configuration makes the plane stable and even self correct in the roll axis in normal flight.

When rudder is applied the plane actually banks to some extend and turns. This is becoz as the nose changes direction, the airflow over the outer wing has a higher speed and more lift is generated than the inner wing, hence the plane banks.

Rolling the plane is not entirely impossible with a rudder/elevator plane. But since it is stable in the roll axis and want to remain upright, don't expect the roll to be smooth as an aileron equiped plane. In fact to do a roll you'll have to combine rudder inputs with elevator, and still get a very ugly roll, and of coz you'll need lots of height to even try one safely.

Having said that, rudder/elevator is what beginners should try first to learn about flying behaviours, confidence-building, orientation training...

Cheers,
Leon

[joe yap]

Aileron rolls the plane directly. Rudder yaws the plane, but if coupled with sufficient wing dihedral, yawing the plane will induce rolling movements. In short, yaw induced roll. You still can do a full 360 degrees roll for certain models with such configurations if you have enough rudder authorities. However, it'll look more like a snap or barrel roll since there is yawing movement along the way.

The advantage of having a plane with such control configuration is that the model is simple to rig. Since beginner models usually require relatively large amount of diherdal to stabilize the plane, they have the luxury to adopt such control configurations. Furthermore, the rudder is usually directly behind the prop wash, which makes it very responsive, especially with the application of throttle. Unlike ailerons, which are very ineffective at low speeds and can cause tip stalls if the pilot is not careful.

[thealex]

Thanks to all,

So, that is to say, if fly normally (without stunt), it can fly like any other plane, right?

[jansonfinn]

Thanks to all,

So, that is to say, if fly normally (without stunt), it can fly like any other plane, right?

yes of coz, like wat leon mentioned, u have 1 less channel to take care of, so u can concentrate easier on ur flying.

[Sunstorm]

Thanks to all,

So, that is to say, if fly normally (without stunt), it can fly like any other plane, right?

Let's just say that it can do most of the things planes can do, minus some stunts which you really shouldn't be attempting at your skill level.

Most of us start on rudder / elevator planes and they fly ok...

[loyn]

not only u can fly with elevator and rudder ...... u can fly with rudder and throttle only too

sometime u just need to have simple fun toy

this little flyer is always in my car ....... action when needed

[danielburgess]

Rudder/elevator controls.

Hi,

I used to fly on just rudder/ elevator when I just started this hobby many years ago, mostly because I could only afford a 2 channel radio in my high school days.

After I got a little fed up with the lack of controls, and still stuck with the same setup, I experimented with Aileron/ elevator only control surfaces, which I found was a better idea.

Cheers!

[joe yap]

Hi,

I used to fly on just rudder/ elevator when I just started this hobby many years ago, mostly because I could only afford a 2 channel radio in my high school days.

After I got a little fed up with the lack of controls, and still stuck with the same setup, I experimented with Aileron/ elevator only control surfaces, which I found was a better idea.

Cheers!

That is better for certain designs which trives on higher speeds. Slow flying models, or models flying at low speeds during take-off and landings have better controls on rudder. That's is why fullsize pilots are taught to use more rudder at lower flying speeds. You can get nasty tip stalls with ailerons at low speeds.

You will not be surprised that for some high wing trainer planes, the rudder seems to be much more responsive than the ailerons. The old OK models Hopper 30 is a very good example.

[Jack_Chen]

yeah, don't worry about the rudder/elevator control. It's pretty responsive for RC planes. It doesn't translate the same way with real planes due to the scale effect. Some thing to do with the size of air molecules etc, etc.

Would suggest a beginner plane that can take ailerons later though, to save money. just add 2 more servos and some fast DIY and you have a good plane. and if your plane is really good, you can even add or mod flaps later.